How to create and manage a group in Teams – step-by-step instructions

Working in Microsoft Teams is suitable for solving problems that arise in communication with company employees or in informal communication with friends. Knowledge of the program’s functions will build correct communication between two or more people in the online world. If you don’t know how to create a group in Teams to unite several members, then this step-by-step guide is for you.

How to create a group

You need to follow these simple five steps to create a group to call several people together for any purpose:

1. Select «create a group». In this tab, you can create your own team or join existing ones.
2. Come up with a name for the group. You can also add a brief description of the group so that when participants receive an invitation link, they can immediately find out about the purpose of joining the group.
3. The created group will be closed by default, other people will not be able to join it without your invitation, so you will have to manually add participants.
4. You need to select the «public» option for the group if it is important to you that any employee of the organization can join it, and the group will become open to new members.
5. In the fifth step, you can add participants. You can add either one person at a time or several selected contacts at once. You can also invite new members as a guest to the group via an email address.

Being in the same group, participants can edit documents together, which can be edited and not sent to others by mail. This will help to reduce the time spent on editing texts several times.

In addition, video calls can be held in the working group. To do this, you need to start it with one hand movement, and all participants will receive an instant notification. Now you don’t have to call everyone and say the same instructions for many hours in a row.

Teams allows you to work effectively even on a trip without the Internet, since all the necessary data is at hand – in a group.

How to manage a group

After five simple steps, you have a group in Teams that you can now manage:

1. To view additional group management features, click Select next to the team name.
2. Select «Team Management» if you need to find a specific participant, a channel, or change the settings for your group.
3. The creator of the group can change the image, thus making the group unique so that it is easier to find it in the general list. To do this, click on «Settings» and «Command Image».
4. The fourth step is advice rather than recommendation. We recommend that you appoint at least two people as the owners of the group in case the password is lost or one of them’s account is hacked.

Pros and cons of Teams

The main advantage of Teams is corporate security, company data is protected from spam and hackers if they appear as part of a video call. Updates to the program constantly monitor suspicious activity and remove its consequences.

The ability to download the mobile version of the application, as well as the absence of the need to pay for its use, increases the rating of Teams among similar programs.

Being a member of a group in Teams, you can:

• organize a video call;
• send videos and photos;
• remotely manage presentations;
• enable screen demonstration from a mobile phone;
• remotely work with documents and email.

At the same time, Teams also has a few disadvantages that users note:

• a complex interface that takes time to learn (our instructions are designed to facilitate the process);
• the inability to connect participants from other companies if this is a corporate group call (conference participants who want to say something or demonstrate their phone screen must be logged in under the accounts of the company that created the group);
• there are frequent problems with sound if the room is not perfectly quiet (in addition, you can not broadcast sound when showing the screen of a mobile phone).

Additional functions

Teams appeared in 2016 and gained the trust of users during the coronavirus pandemic, as it was possible to continue working, albeit in a remote format. Teams is part of the Office 365 suite and is available by corporate subscription.

Additional functions are available in Teams that will be useful to all members of the group:

• the opportunity to «Raise your hand» and attract the attention of the speaker;
• click on «Screen demonstration» and familiarize the group members with any graphic information;
• make a video conference recording so that the participants who were not present could delve into the information and not miss it;
• change the background to a more formal one if it is not possible to organize a workspace in a home environment.

How to connect band members to the season

To organize a video call and connect the group members to it, you need to:

• open the program;
• click on «Start»;
• enter the name of the video conference that participants will see when they receive a call;
• adjust the sound and check the visibility of the webcam;
• Click «Join now»;
• after that, copy the invitation link and send it to the other participants;
• wait for them to connect and start your plan.

If you have problems with the very first step – creating an account, then here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it quickly:

• specify the purpose of creating an account (educational, work, personal);
• after registering with Microsoft Teams, having come up with a username and password, proceed to setting up your profile;
•  click on your profile icon in the upper right corner of the program;
•  in the Settings tab, click General if you want to change the theme and disable autorun Teams when you turn on the device;
• edit notifications in the same tab;
• in the «Devices» and «Advanced Settings» tab, make sure that the microphone and camera are connected to the device from which you logged in to your account;
• click «Make a trial call» and check the changes you have made.

We hope that after such a detailed step-by-step instruction, you will understand how to create a group in Teams. We wish you success in the online world!